AC/DC - JAILBREAK

JAILBREAK

AC/DC

SONGWRITERS: ANGUS YOUNG; BON SCOTT & MALCOLM YOUNG

COUNTRY: AUSTRALIANE

ALBUM: ’74 JAILBREAK

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: HARD ROCK

YEAR: 1984

AC/DC (stylized as ACϟDC) are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Although their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, the band themselves call it simply "rock and roll".

AC/DC underwent several line-up changes before releasing their first album, 1975's High Voltage. Membership subsequently stabilised around the Young brothers, singer Bon Scott, drummer Phil Rudd, and bassist Mark Evans. Evans was fired from the band in 1977 and replaced by Cliff Williams, who has appeared on every AC/DC album since 1978's Powerage. In February 1980, Scott died of acute alcohol poisoning after a night of heavy drinking. The group considered disbanding but elected to stay together, bringing in longtime Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson as Scott's replacement. Later that year, the band released their first album with Johnson, Back in Black, which was dedicated to Scott's memory. The album launched AC/DC to new heights of success and became one of the bestselling albums of all time.

The band's eighth studio album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981), was their first album to reach number one in the United States. Prior the release of 1983's Flick of the Switch, drummer Rudd left the band and was replaced by Simon Wright, being in turn replaced by Chris Slade in 1989. The band experienced a commercial resurgence in the early nineties with the release of 1990's The Razors Edge. Rudd returned to the band in 1994, replacing Slade and appearing on the band's next four albums. Their fifteenth studio álbum Black Ice was the second-highest-selling album of 2008, and their biggest chart hit since For Those About to Rock, eventually reaching No.1 worldwide.

The band's line-up remained the same until 2014 with Malcolm Young's retirement due to early-onset dementia (he later died in 2017) and Rudd's legal troubles. In 2016, Johnson was advised to stop touring due to worsening hearing loss. Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose stepped in as the band's vocalist for the remainder of that year's dates. Long-term bass player and background vocalist Cliff Williams retired from the band at the end of their 2016 Rock or Bust World Tour and the group has been inactive since then. Nevertheless, they have not officially disbanded and unconfirmed reports of a new album and tour with the surviving Back in Black-era lineup continue to circulate.

AC/DC have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, including 71.5 million albums in the United States, making them the tenth highest-selling artist in the United States and the 14th bestselling artist worldwide. Back in Black has sold an estimated 50 million units worldwide, making it the third highest-selling album by any artist, and the highest-selling album by any band. The album has sold 22 million units in the US, where it is the sixth highest-selling album of all time. AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and were named the seventh "Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time" by MTV. In 2004, AC/DC ranked No. 72 on the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Producer Rick Rubin, who wrote an essay on the band for the Rolling Stone list, referred to AC/DC as "the greatest rock and roll band of all time". In 2010, VH1 ranked AC/DC number 23 in its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

'74 Jailbreak is an EP by Australian rock band AC/DC, released in 1984. It is composed of five tracks that had previously been released only in Australia. Despite the EP's title, the song "Jailbreak" was actually recorded in 1976 and was originally released that year on the Australian version of the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album. The EP's four other tracks were originally released on the Australian version of the band's debut album, High Voltage, recorded in 1974 and released early the following year

The song "Jailbreak" was released as a single with accompanying music video in 1983. The '74 Jailbreak EP was re-released worldwide in 2003 as part of the AC/DC Remasters series.

There was a friend of mine on murder

And the judge's gavel fell

Jury found him guilty

Gave him sixteen years in hell

He said: I ain't spending my life here

I ain't living alone

Ain't breaking no rocks on the chain gang

I'm breakin' out and headin' home

Gonna make a jailbreak

And I'm lookin' towards the sky

I'm gonna make a jailbreak

Oh, how I wish that I could fly

All in the name of liberty

Got to be free

Jailbreak, let me out of here

Jailbreak, sixteen years, ah

Jailbreak, had more than I can take

Jailbreak, yeah

He said, he'd seen his lady

Being fooled with by another man

She was down and he was up

Had a gun in his hand

Bullets started flying everywhere

And people started to scream

Big man lying on the ground

With a hole in his body

Where his life had been

But it was all in the name of liberty

All in the name of liberty

I got to be free

Jailbreak, jailbreak

I got to break out

Out of here

Heartbeats, they were racin'

Freedom, he was chasin'

Spotlights, sirens, rifles firing

But he made it out

With a bullet in his back

Jailbreak.